What have we been learning about this term?

This is the final term for the children in Year 1! We have been doing lots of exciting things to prepare them for Year 2! This term we have two topics - Football Fever and Castles and Magic.

During the topic Football Fever we looked at the World Cup in Russia and created a fact file about it. We then looked at the other countries that have hosted the World Cup! The children loved learning about it and found out some interesting facts.

Did you you know that the World Cup was stolen but found a week later by a dog called Pickles?

This week we have had a fun packed week! To start the week off, we had glow in the dark Zumba! The children loved using glow sticks and glow in the dark bibs. They followed the instructor and played some fun games! Have a look at what we did.

Glow in the dark Zumba

Glow in the dark Zumba

If the children weren’t worn out enough with the Zumba, on Wednesday we had Russian Dancing! The children loved learning a new dance and performed it to the whole school in the afternoon. They did so well!

Russian dancing practice

The children had such fun coming in their costumes for our WOW castles and magic dress up day! They looked amazing in their costumes and produced some beautiful writing about their character.

As it is healthy eating week as well as the group stages of the World Cup, we decided to chose Iran as our country for our healthy eating stimulus. We designed our own pittas and decided what ingredients we would put in them. After lunch, we went into the DT room and made our Pittas. The children loved making the pittas and trying new things!

On the last day of this very packed week, we had sports day. The children did so well, everybody taking part and cheering each other on! Everybody tried their best and we are so proud of them all!

Summer 1

This term we are using the book Elephant by Petr Horáček as a stimulus for our writing. The children have been writing predictions about what they think is going to happen next in the book with the characters Ben and the Elephant. When Ben and the elephant meet tigers the children acted out what would happen next…

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In topic, we are looking at rainforests and different types of animals. To introduce the topic, we looked at domestic and wild animals and the differences between them. The children then had to sort the animals into domestic and wild. Afterwards they had to write what a domestic animal is and what a wild animal is. This is the fantastic work they came up with.

Domestic and Wild Animals

We were very lucky to go to Park Bridge on our class trip. The children enjoyed pond dipping and bug hunting! They caught some amazing creatures! After lunch they made our own small worlds and clay creatures. The children celebrated their fantastic work at the end and all the adults were very impressed!

Our class trip to Park Bridge

On Wednesday, we had a visitor come to our school! A lovely lady called Lauren came to our school with lots of exciting creatures. We learnt about the habitats and adaptations of a corn snake, a millipede, a tarantula, a lizard and a guinea pig! We also got to hold/touch them! Miss Corrigan was really proud of how brave we all were.

Welcome to the petting Zoo!

Spring 2

This term was short but full of lots of fun things! We had science day and World Book Day this term. We also had a few days off with the snow! For science day, we did a fun experiment using lemons, bicarbonate of soda, food colouring and washing up liquid. We made our own lemon volcanoes!

Our topic this half term was toys! We looked at old toys and investigated them. The children were able to play with the old toys and work out how they would have been played with years ago. The children loved guessing how the toys would have been played with and loved learning about how toys have changed!

Spring 1

We loved having visitors in our school showing us cool gymnastic moves. We got to use the inflatable runway and climb on the climbing frame in the hall!

Our book this term was Norman the Slug with the silly shell. Norman is a slug who really wants to play with the other snails but can’t join in without a shell. Norman goes on the hunt for a shell but can’t find the perfect one until he finds a doughnut! However, when playing with his snail friends, Norman is taken by a bird who wants to eat his shell! Norman narrowly escapes and lands on a swishy washing line. The story ends with Norman wanting to fly. We used this book as a stimulus for writing our own story. First we had to come up with a character. We used mini doughnuts, icing and toppings to make the perfect shell. The children loved making their own character and eating their perfect shell at the end!

In topic, we have been learning about hot and cold countries. We looked at the different animals that live in hot and cold countries and why they are suited to live there. For art, we looked at thermal images of animals living in hot and cold climates. We drew our animals and then used water colours to show the colours on a thermal image. Here is what we came up with!

The children also used ICT to make their own pic collages of things they would wear in hot and cold countries. The children had to research and find pictures of clothing for their country and then compile a collage of pictures and text.

Autumn 2

This week we got to go into a planetarium and look at the night sky. We also got to learn about the stars and how some stars make constellations! We loved being inside the dome!

Autumn 1

Materials and friction

Today we have been testing materials and friction. We needed to find out which was the best material to make a ramp for our teddies and their sleds. We tested foam, sandpaper, felt, Lino and carpet. We found out that the materials that were smooth had less friction made the sled slide quickly and the bumpy materials had more friction and made the sled slide slowly.

The Big Bad Wolf came into our classroom this week and made a mess of the classroom! The children were shocked when they came back in from break to find our classroom turned upside down! We were able to create some wanted posters to catch the beastly wolf - you can see them on our classroom window!

We have been learning how to count one more and one less!

This week, we went into the woods and sorted lots of different materials!

Building Stick Houses

Some of us have been building stick houses in our forest area. We worked in teams and had to see if we could make our houses super strong. We tested them by huffing and puffing just like the Big Bad Wolf!

Sorting Materials

Today some have us have been sorting materials into different groups. We were given a basket full of different objects and had to decide with our partners which groups to sort them into. Can you guess what our groups were?

This week, the children have been exploring their classroom and are getting to know the different areas. We have talked about the class rules and have written about what we did in the summer holidays. Class 1SC have also been looking at pencil control, counting and describing different materials.

Below are some pictures taken from this week.

We have been practising our fabulous counting skills!

We have been learning how to control our pencil!

We love our reading area! There are so many great books to read!

We have been trying to build a safe house for the three little pigs to live in.

We love playing with the numicon in our maths area!

We love playing in the role play area and re-enacting the story of the three little pigs with our own twist!